Bryant's attitudes towards fascism cannot be separated from the rapidly accelerating events that began around 1934; or from the conflicting and confusing perceptions of those events and their context ...
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Bryant's attitudes towards fascism cannot be separated from the rapidly accelerating events that began around 1934; or from the conflicting and confusing perceptions of those events and their context to most British participants; or from the political and social circles in which Bryant lived, thought, and worked. His commitment to the avoidance of war was hardly unique but belonged rather to a common currency, whose credit was exhausted only when war began in late 1939. The relation between his deeply felt patriotism and his desire to avoid war with the Nazis was complicated by the ambivalent anti‐Semitism he shared with so many Conservatives.Less

Arthur Bryant, Appeasement, and Anti‐Semitism

Reba N. Soffer

Published in print: 2008-12-11

Bryant's attitudes towards fascism cannot be separated from the rapidly accelerating events that began around 1934; or from the conflicting and confusing perceptions of those events and their context to most British participants; or from the political and social circles in which Bryant lived, thought, and worked. His commitment to the avoidance of war was hardly unique but belonged rather to a common currency, whose credit was exhausted only when war began in late 1939. The relation between his deeply felt patriotism and his desire to avoid war with the Nazis was complicated by the ambivalent anti‐Semitism he shared with so many Conservatives.

In Weimar Germany, parliamentary democracy stabilized, but at the cost of entrenching the power of the reactionary ‘permanent state’ (army, most police forces, judiciary, most civil servants). ...
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In Weimar Germany, parliamentary democracy stabilized, but at the cost of entrenching the power of the reactionary ‘permanent state’ (army, most police forces, judiciary, most civil servants). Constitutionalism in Italy, wracked by bourgeois / socialist conflict, collapsed into Fascism. In Soviet Russia, the prostration of the proletariat and elimination of the bourgeoisie created a vacuum filled by the Leviathan state. Elsewhere, the Red challenge was beaten back, but bourgeois confidence in democracy was left diminished. The economic Slump from 1929 put the very future of capitalism into question, radicalising Fascism in Italy and preparing the way for a an anti-Semitic Nazi take-over in Germany. Constitutionalism reached a low ebb.Less

Communism and Fascism

Marc Mulholland

Published in print: 2012-10-04

In Weimar Germany, parliamentary democracy stabilized, but at the cost of entrenching the power of the reactionary ‘permanent state’ (army, most police forces, judiciary, most civil servants). Constitutionalism in Italy, wracked by bourgeois / socialist conflict, collapsed into Fascism. In Soviet Russia, the prostration of the proletariat and elimination of the bourgeoisie created a vacuum filled by the Leviathan state. Elsewhere, the Red challenge was beaten back, but bourgeois confidence in democracy was left diminished. The economic Slump from 1929 put the very future of capitalism into question, radicalising Fascism in Italy and preparing the way for a an anti-Semitic Nazi take-over in Germany. Constitutionalism reached a low ebb.

This chapter surveys the relationship between discourses on monstrosity and dystopia from the classical world to the present. It commences with the postulate that monstrosity defines a space of fear ...
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This chapter surveys the relationship between discourses on monstrosity and dystopia from the classical world to the present. It commences with the postulate that monstrosity defines a space of fear which provides a key prototype for dystopia. Its focus is firstly upon the Christian reconceptualization of monstrosity in the personage of Satan, secondly upon the idea of monstrous populations in fabulous countries, and finally upon the reinvention of monstrosity through the Frankenstein motif and related themes. Reference is made to ancient travel narratives, the Voyages of Sir John Mandeville, the myth of Saint George slaying the dragon (Satan), and many other discussions of human identity in relation to the monstrous, the animal, and the mechanical. Monstrosity is related to the origins and development of anti-Semitism. The need to reinvent monstrosity is linked to fears of the domination of technology, and especially robots, emerging in the late nineteenth century.Less

Monstrosity and the Origin ofDystopian Space

Gregory Claeys

Published in print: 2016-12-08

This chapter surveys the relationship between discourses on monstrosity and dystopia from the classical world to the present. It commences with the postulate that monstrosity defines a space of fear which provides a key prototype for dystopia. Its focus is firstly upon the Christian reconceptualization of monstrosity in the personage of Satan, secondly upon the idea of monstrous populations in fabulous countries, and finally upon the reinvention of monstrosity through the Frankenstein motif and related themes. Reference is made to ancient travel narratives, the Voyages of Sir John Mandeville, the myth of Saint George slaying the dragon (Satan), and many other discussions of human identity in relation to the monstrous, the animal, and the mechanical. Monstrosity is related to the origins and development of anti-Semitism. The need to reinvent monstrosity is linked to fears of the domination of technology, and especially robots, emerging in the late nineteenth century.